Lockout Update: Plan of attack, contingencies, and some big news!

With the NFL Lockout dragging on, we figured it's time for a little update on what that means for the PFFL.  We've got a bunch of updates for you, but first let us just say that in the event that the season is cancelled or significantly impacted we will happily refund everyone's money or hold onto it for 2012 (or NBA 2011 or MLB 2012...more details on THAT to come).  Otherwise, we expect that a deal will get done by early July, so with that in mind you can read on for our plan of attack as well as some really big news about the future of the PFFL.

Now, whether you are following the lockout like a hawk or whether you've tuned out, we'd like to suggest that you all take a look at our NFL Fan Strike Facebook page -- we've grown to over 252 likes on that page (enough to fill the whole PFFL for this year...) and keep everyone posted on the latest details.  Our current take is that the NFL will win the appeal starting June 3rd, and then the players will be forced to agree to a deal in time for training camp.

What that means for the 2011 Season: we are going to wait to begin our recruiting blitz until the lockout is resolved.  In the meantime, the initial rollout of our new website is just about ready, and we'll send a note soon to let you all check it out.  Just as soon as the lockout is resolved, we'll open up League Assignment so you can all pick a league and a draft time that you can make, and then we'll open the floodgates to start recruiting for the 2011 season.  We're only going to have 6-8 weeks, so we will really need your help to spread the word, but we're ready to go with a marketing blitz too as needed.

In the meantime, the PFFL has been very busy behind the scenes, and we've got some major developments to announce!  The big news is this: we are making a substantial investment in the PFFL to lay the groundwork for some serious growth down the road.  First, we have officially incorporated the PFFL and are in the process of making the necessary legal arrangements to ensure everything is kosher with our great game.  Second, we are planning to make an offer to our first employee who will head up the web development for the PFFL.  Here are a couple of big implications:

• Pack as many features and functionality into PFFL 2011 -- we're still using Yahoo, but hope to have our site fully integrated with Yahoo and have as many cool and new features as possible.
• Sport expansion: we're moving ahead with plans to roll out additional sports -- we may have NBA online as soon as this fall (probably with just 48 teams, like how we started the PFFL) and will definitely have MLB online by 2012.  We'll be rolling out package deals for those that wish to play multiple sports.
• Our own application by 2012 -- we're not only going to compete with Yahoo, Sportsline and ESPN, we're going to crush them.  Our unique league structure will allow us to build out tons of cool features that those other guys could only dream of.

So while 2011 may be off to a bit of a rocky start, the future of the PFFL has never been brighter.  Once this lockout nonsense is over, it's off to the races!